I think we had this argument pretty recently. I don't like it too much, it's a little too theatrical/over-the-top for my tastes, it feels like it meanders at times as well. And of course the production is awful. The chaotic approach is growing on me though, maybe I'll end up liking it.

Emperor were a distinctive outfit with a sound which no one has been able to successfully imitate. They're "controversial" because they were an authentic black metal band who popularized black metal. Their influence, unlike, say, Mayhem, was primarily musical and so it was easier to point to Emperor as causing an influx of posers. Immortal's influence was felt here also but Emperor's was greater. Remember that the popular face of 'extreme' metal had used to be swarms of interchangeable Suffocation clones and in the mid 90s, after the Norwegian explosion, it was a horde of third rate "symphonic black metal" with the signature Emperor synthpad+shriek aesthetic.

Postscript: Most 'underground' 'extreme' metal fans ultimately buy into the genre because of the promise of individualism. In other words, metal gives them a guarantee that they stand out from the crowd without them having to do something inspiring and thus risking failure. It fulfills a need for a "unique" identity among low self-esteem people by providing them with a massproduced, prepackaged one marketed as "esoteric" and "rebellious". As suggested, it also guarantees them membership into a community of similarly insecure social misfits. This is honestly the main reason why metalheads instantly look upon more popular acts, or bands that grow to popularity, with suspicion and accompanied hostility: because it abstractly threatens to strip them of their inflated sense of "individuality".

euronymous

Emperor were a distinctive outfit with a sound which no one has been able to successfully imitate..

True.

I actually can't imagine a more suitable production for this work. I don't find it important either to listen every single note in it, as the whole is so impressive that it doesn't matter.

Many times I've read ppl comparing this album with an astral travel, and I think it's true it produces that feeling, and others of the like.

Also many imitators have a "galactic" or even "magic" approach in their ITNE bad clones, what to me demonstrates how much succesful the Emperor guys were transfering emotions and abstract thoughts to ITNE.

:)ITNE is a fine album, no question, if you don't like it fair enough, but it is loved by many. The thing that annoys me is that everyone bashes thier later albums. It is hard not to compare them to ITNE but if you manage not to then they don't seem so bad.

When I was first informed of Emperor I new very little about them and purchased their later albums first, I really enjoyed them. When I first purchased ITNE it did make the other albums look small but i still love them dearly, as decent, well composed music and not necessarily as black metal.

The thing that annoys me is that everyone bashes thier later albums. It is hard not to compare them to ITNE but if you manage not to then they don't seem so bad.

No, they absolutely fucking suck, it's some of the most horribly pretentious, overdone, structureless shite ever put to CD and the despicable vermin who created it deserve a good sharp fork-raping as punishment.

If i had to choose an album to represent black metal it would be this one. Majestic, epic, it makes a fantasy world come to life when you listen to it. I don't have a problem with the production either.

If i had to choose an album to represent black metal it would be this one. Majestic, epic, it makes a fantasy world come to life when you listen to it. I don't have a problem with the production either.

The paradigmatic black metal album for me will always remain "Transilvanian Hunger." No other album, through aesthetics or otherwise, better evokes that which can be called a qualitative definition of the black metal style.

On that note, however, I will say that "In The Nightside Eclipse," along with the work of Burzum, was able to transcend the limitations of metal music into a timeless semiotic promulgation of ideology and spirituality. As such, I would rate these works just ever so slightly higher.

"The paradigmatic black metal album for me will always remain "Transilvanian Hunger." No other album, through aesthetics or otherwise, better evokes that which can be called a qualitative definition of the black metal style."

I agree. ITNE sounds quite pompous at times. I still enjoy the album though.

I think we had this argument pretty recently. I don't like it too much, it's a little too theatrical/over-the-top for my tastes, it feels like it meanders at times as well. And of course the production is awful.

There were two lines of thought in Emperor, one that was horrifically noisy and underground and the other that was more Dimmu Borgir, and they just about converged on this album. Enough of the savagery was left to make it interesting and the use of keyboards and advanced guitar made it epic. What was great about it was that it is a storyteller's album, like a landscape of action in a film. After this, they lost touch with that storyteller aspect and became riff salad shit ambient black heavy metal gayness.

Emperor really started the whole over the top theatrical thing. Burzum was doing good with the ambient Black Metal, but then Emperor had to go in and start the whole "Black Metal but with the Batman Returns soundtrack played in the backround" bit. Synths can be good, but they can't make or break a songs, let alone be thrown sloppily all around a piece. They are clearly talented musicians who make dull music.

At least when I put in Darkthrone, I know I won't have to put up with such cheesy shit.

for me emperor are like the Mozart of metal, their works are intentionally pompous but its a completely legitimate feel and approach to music which brings a different perspective then a more "serious" album (this is in quotes because the term serious is subjective).

After all Mozart's music captured a completely different side of music then what Beethoven showed, or what Bach or Grieg showed. the over the top feel is just as perfectly good as say the feel from the album frost from enslaved